BATALIIA. 93 



carried, and withal what a cliarniing- and graceful collec- 

 tion of buildings was offered to our admiration. 



Now, Batallia is indisputably, so far as architecture is 

 concerned, by very far the first ecclesiastical structure in 

 Portugal : nay more, it has no rival which can compete 

 with it for a single moment ; it is something more than 

 facile pri}iceps amidst its brethren of Belem, Alcobapa, 

 and Mafra. And yet to the ordinary English ecclesiologist 

 it is scarcely known even by name, whilst among British 

 travellers in Portugal, and still less amongst the educated 

 inhabitants of the country, you can scarcely find one in a 

 hundred who has thouoflit it worth the fatig^ue and trouble 

 to deviate but a short day's journey from the direct line 

 which connects the southern and northern capitals of 

 Lisbon and Oporto, in order to see this beautiful monastery, 

 built in so peculiar a style, but so rich and striking in its 

 exquisite details. 



It is singular that it should be so overlooked, because of 

 the few travellers who have visited it scarcely any have 

 refrained from proclaiming loudly their unqualified admi- 

 ration of this lovely gem ; though it would seem that their 

 several assertions have met with little credence or have 

 excited but little curiosity, for Batalha is still a name 

 almost unknown beyond the limits of the district in which 

 it stands. So long ago as 1795 the architect. Murphy, 

 published a folio volume of plans and elevations of these 

 buildings, to which he laudably devoted much time and 

 pains on the spot. They are certainly by no means accu- 

 rate, but they are sufficiently attractive, one would have 

 supposed, to provoke enquiry; but I have been unable to 

 discover any other engraving or picture of this remarkable 

 monastery,* with the exception of a ground-plan of the 



* Since writing the above, I have seen at the Kensington Museum a very 

 handsome volume of twenty large photographs of this monastery, by the 

 late Mr, Thurston Thompson, published about a year ago by the Arundel 



